The Vault 101 Dweller's birth date, 7/13/2258, is a Biblical reference to Micah 7:13, which reads: "And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants, on account of the fruit of their deeds." This aptly describes the whole Fallout series.

The butler in My Megaton House is a Mr. Handy robot named "Wadsworth". Wadsworth the Butler is Tim Curry's character in the movie Clue. Like other Mr. Handy robots, Wadsworth speaks in a tone and voice similar to that employed by Tim Curry in the movie.

Bethesda Softworks, which created all the Elder Scrolls Games as well as Fallout 3, has a practice and history of reusing voice actors, quest designs, names of places, character designs, dialogue lines, and other game materials. Use of such in Fallout 3 does not constitute a cultural reference.

The first log entry in the Research Lead terminals in the Museum of Technology contains lyrics from the song Archtype by the band Fear Factory: The infection has been removed // the soul of this machine has improved.

The mainframe is named the "Archetype Model FF06"--Archetype being the song name, FF standing for Fear Factory, and 06 being the album number.

Vocalist Burton C. Bell's name can be abbreviated to B. Bell, the researcher's name.

During the Fallout 3 add-on Operation: Anchorage, a reporter is gathering a group of soldiers for a photo and says "Maybe someone will make this picture into a statue one day." This is a reference to the movie Flags of Our Fathers.

The Brahmin in all the Fallout games refer to the Brahmin in Hindu culture. Their use in the Fallout games is likely to be a play on the reverence held for cows in Hindu culture. This has been seen as disrespectful to the Hindu culture, and use of the name Brahmin was banned in India from Fallout 3.

A Mr. Gutsy says, "I'm starting to get angry. You would not like me when I'm angry." This is much like what Dr. Banner says to Mr. Mcgee in the opening sequence of the TV series The Incredible Hulk. Exact quote: "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

The image for the Nerd Rage looks like Bruce Banner transforming into the Hulk.

The karmic title "Last, Best Hope of Humanity" is a phrase which has its origin in Lincoln's closing remarks to his 1862 Annual Message to Congress, "We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth". ("Last, best hope" has since become a popular rhetorical trope.)

The dog's name "Four Score" is a reference to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

The story told in the personal logs found in the Dunwich Building, the name of the building, and the whispering obelisk found in the Virulent Underchambers refer to Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos/setting. See The Dunwich Horror.

Mad Max and his dog in The Road Warrior. This is a direct influence on the "Main Character and Dogmeat" picture on the back of Fallout 3's cover. Mad Max's attire was the inspiration for the leather armor.

The Mad Max movies, starring Mel Gibson as a post-apocalyptic warrior, are a pervasive influence on the Fallout series.

One of the Little Lamplight children uses the word humongous incorrectly, saying "humungus." Though it appears incorrect, it is actually a reference to Lord Humungus, the leader of the antagonizing gang in The Road Warrior.

The design of the Leather Armor in all three Fallout games is based on Mel Gibson's armor in Mad Max.

A picture of the main character walking beside Dogmeat that is featured on the back of the packaging, and in every ending is a homage to the image of Mad Max walking beside his dog from The Road Warrior.

Fallout 3's Dogmeat is a Blue Heeler, the breed that was used for Mad Max's dog in the movie.

There is a random encounter with a character named Mel, who wears a leather jacket and sports a sawed-off shotgun. High perception grants the information that the shotgun is unloaded. In The Road Warrior Max (played by Mel Gibson) threatens the Gyrocaptain with his shotgun, even though it wasn't loaded.

The Raiders' style of dressing is similar to that of the various raider and biker gangs in the Mad Max films.

Medical Braces are similar to those that Max wears on his left leg in the films.

If the player visits Fort Independence and asks an Outcast named Defender Morgan, "What have you got against the Brotherhood?", she will refer to Elder Lyons as "Ahab Lyons", who "is off chasing his Super Mutant white whale." This is a reference to Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

The Hubris Comics computers list a comic called Drake Tungsten, Chrono-Cowboy. This is a reference to the episode "Hercules Against the Moon Men".

A computer in the National Archives contains a memo from the man in charge of robot maintenance signed, P. Brantseg. Patrick Brantseg voiced Gypsy on the show, was the puppeteer for all the puppets, and was listed in the credits as "puppet wrangler."

The slaver that kills the bartender in Paradise Falls, Ymir, is a reference to the Norse frost giant whose body is the foundation of Midgard. His son is called Jotun, which is the name of the race of the Norse giants.

In the town "Little Lamplight" the doctor, Lucy, is a reference to the character "Lucy" from Charles Schultz's Peanuts. Inside of the clinic where she is located, a sign reading "The Doctor is in" can be found, which was often seen on Lucy's stand in the series.

While patching up the PC during the Wasteland Survival Guide personal injury sub-quest, Moira asks the PC to describe the pain with the line, "And remember, this is for posterity!" This echoes a line used by Count Rugin in The Princess Bride when asking Westley to describe the torture in the Pit of Despair.

Asked what she does for the Brotherhood, Knight Captain Dusk replies that she is a sniper, and then says "Put any mutie bastard within one mile of me and my rifle and well, pack it up troops... fight's over." Jackson in Saving Private Ryan makes the same remark, with 'Hitler' replacing 'mutie' as the subject.

When asked what his real name is, Knight Captain Gallows responds with "What's the pool up to?", similar to Captain Miller's response in Saving Private Ryan when a query is made regarding his occupation.

One of the 911 Dispatch terminals in the Germantown Police HQ contains rantings referencing the song "Llama School" from The Sifl and Olly Show. The password for a computer terminal in the same building is "Vicious Coy", the name of the Precious Roy knockoff on the X-and-O show.

Some of the radios and televisions in the Wasteland are called Radiation Kings (there is also a Radiation King store in downtown D.C.), which is the name of the TV Homer had as a young boy. This easter egg was originally present in the opening movie of Fallout.

One of the Brotherhood of Steel soldiers spurs on his comrades by asking whether they want to live forever. The quote is similar to, "Come on, you apes, you want to live forever?" which figures prominently in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers and its movie adaptation. That, in turn, is a reference to a quote sometimes attributed to one Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph "Dan" Daly and having an extensive history going back at least to Frederick the Great.

During the first fade-to-white in the opening character creation, The Overseer says, "Dammit! We need a doctor, not a scientist", a reference to lines in the original Star Trek in which Dr. McCoy says to Captain Kirk, "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a (profession that isn't medical)".

Dr. Preston in Rivet City will say "I'm a doctor, not a dealer!" when asked about purchasing chems.

The Adventures of Captain Cosmos takes its inspiration from Star Trek. Captain Cosmos is known to have aired at 8:00 P.M. on Thursdays (the timeslot that Star Trek filled during its first two seasons in the real world). In the Mothership Zeta DLC pack, the Lone Wanderer and Sally (who is a fan of Captain Cosmos) take a diverse crew into ship-to-ship combat against another alien mothership

Protector McGraw stated that the Anchorage Reclamation Simulation ran without "safety protocols", which meant that a person killed inside the simulation would also die in the real world. The holodecks introduced in The Next Generation had a similar safety protocol feature that was often disabled as part of an episode's plot.

The bottom log entry on the Maintenance Department terminal in the Presidential Sub Level (accessed through a Broken Steel quest) ends with lyrics to Canadian heavy metal band Strapping Young Lad's song "Detox": "I wish that I could get to sleep and just get this over with... this is only high school bullshit. I'm lost, I'm freaking and everybody knows... everyone's watching."

When talking to the slave Prosper in the Pitt DLC, one dialogue option reads, "Your Clothes. Give them to me. Now." Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in The Terminator says the same line after arriving naked from time-traveling.

The quest Those! is a reference to the 1954 Oscar-nominated sci-fi classic Them! about giant ants, the result of nuclear testing in New Mexico. (The original script for Them! even had the climactic hunt for the nest take place in the New York subway system.)

When the PC tries to rob Uncle Leo, his dialogue--in which he tells you the clothes are a gift and he wishes he could give you the "wonderful moon"--comes from the following Zen Buddhist koan:

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.Ryokan returned and caught him. “You have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.”The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon.”[1]

Much of the random dialogue from Fawkes can be heard as simple wasteland survival advice but also references Zen philosophy. Examples include "Be aware of the present moment" and "There is safety in mindfulness".